Working Vampire Beach

October 31st 2013, All Hallows Eve. A day no
different to any other, apart from up and down the country, amusement and theme
parks, big and small, open their doors to to
frighten and entertain their guests. This is no exception for the team at
Pleasure Beach Blackpool, who for this one night only, open their gates to any member of the public brave enough to enter the, ‘revamped’ Vampire
Pleasure Beach.

A few weeks before this, doing my typical Theme Park twitter stalking, I came across an advertisement, and one that caught my undivided attention. Pleasure Beach Blackpool looking for ages 16+ to be transformed into a Zombie for one evening to entertain the guests, with food included! (And a free ticket to the Night Rider Event!) Make-up was included; experience not necessary as a demonstration and tour was given.

I jumped at the chance and quickly dashed out of my Sixth Form’s library to ring the number to express my interest and that was that. My fate was sealed, my name written down; I was going to be a Zombie Scare actor for Blackpool Pleasure Beach. This was a dream come true for a theme park and Halloween enthusiast like myself, my two favourite things bundled into one evening.

I was told to arrive at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Arena at around 1 O’clock to be transformed into a character and costumed up. The day started off terribly as I missed my train by seconds due to a self-service ticket machine refusing to accept my perfectly crisp £20 note. However, I was put at ease as I rung the Pleasure Beach team and told them that I will be there, just half an hour or so late. This later turned out to be no problem.

Arriving at the Pleasure Beach was quite daunting as I made my way to the arena, I was alone, and my friends weren’t particularly available to do something like this and didn’t quite have the child-like enthusiasm as I did. Thinking about it, I may have scared them off before i even had the make-up on. That’s when I arrived in the dance studio. Hundreds of people my age, some already had make-up on, some were in the process and others were in costume and ready to go. I was lucky I was late, as it seemed like I missed a huge queue! I arrived, scribbled my name down, and before I knew it one of the make-up team had me sat down and asked what I wanted. ‘Erm..I don’t really know, whatever you think is best!’ I timidly replied, the assistant gave a thoughtful look and an idea sparked behind his eyes ‘I know! The Joker!’ I had no issue with this, and within five minutes, there I was. Your typical creepy Joker turned zombie.

After finishing this, this is where I realised I was really alone here, people had come in friend groups, all seemed to know each other and were from the surrounding areas such as Fleetwood, Preston, and Blackpool itself. And there I was, from Bolton, a good 40 miles away and an hour and a half on the train with a very short stature and timid attitude. This feeling soon washed away as the people were there for the same reason I was, scare acting for fun, and for such a big event and I got chatting to a few people. I was then given a costume and told how to put it on, a huge grey and black cloak with a hood, something similar to the Grim Reaper or a Shade. The hood had black netting that came down over the face, menacingly concealing the top half of my face revealing the bloody smile of the Joker. Here is where I must applaud the make-up and costume team.I looked fantastic. I didn’t even recognise myself.

We were then taken on a tour around the Pleasure Beach by a very friendly Team Nick leader, Jason Taylor. This was particularly for those of us who hadn’t been before, and told to take note of any ‘hiding spots’ to take full advantage of. The park was still open at this point, as the Vampire Pleasure Beach officially opened at 4PM-10PM. Much to the confusion of visiting families to see 115 costumed young people following one Team Nick leader. Around the park we were told of the variety of entertainment that was on at different points of the park, such as Live DJs and bands, roaming fire eating stilt walkers, the projected show ‘Valhalla Spooktacular’ and my favourite (which was to be my home for the majority of the evening) the Horror Maze, which was the Chinese Puzzle Maze by day, but a spooky, fog emitting confusing maze by night. After this, we were given our free food pass and ‘Zombie Passes’ to give us the licence to scare the Pleasure Beach guests. And were given a few last minute tips, such as avoid trying to frighten the little ones who may be in the Pleasure Beach but instead try to spook them rather than petrify. After we ate, we were told we had free reign and we, for this evening, were our own bosses. Some wanted to wander the park and hide in the little nooks and crannies; some wanted to interact with the guests on a much closer level and others had a particular interest in the Horror Maze, just as I did. I spent the first part of the Vampire Beach wandering around, stalking guests ever so quietly waiting until one of their friends notices, alerting and startling the others in the group. It was still daylight after all, and I simply had to use line of sight as my only hiding tool. As dark began to engulf the Pleasure Beach I made my way to the Horror Maze to get my bearings and find all the hiding spots and dead ends. Turns out October is the perfect time for a hedge maze to be turned into a Live-Action Horror Maze because if you looked close enough, you could just about see through the hedges, often giving you an advantage to your unsuspecting victims. The night was filled with a considerable amount of standing in synthetic fog, girls screeching and a lot of Slash horror film chasing. It was however, also filled with a considerable amount of rain and a pinch of hecklers trying to ruin the maze for most. This is where I was impressed with some of the fellow scare actors as we often worked together without ever once communicating with each other to scare the hecklers out. The rain left me quite damp and cold, but the occasional group of testosterone filled males that would dart in the opposite direction as I ran at them down a hedge corridor definitely kept my spirits up. The rain didn’t seem to stop anybody from braving the maze either as it seemed!

It’s important to note that, this Halloween, was my very first experience of scare acting on a large scale like this. (I did create a ‘horror house experience’ the summer previous and acted in that too, but that’s for another time.) In those 6 hours or so, I learnt a few basics, your typical categories of people and what effectively scared them the most. Vampire Pleasure Beach seemed to provide me with a stepping stool to the scare acting world allowing me to practice, but it also became one of the best Halloweens I’ve had for all of my 17 years. Not one drop of rain put me off the night, and I thoroughly enjoyed scaring the living daylights out of people for an evening or so. It was an absolute privilege to be part of something that big, and I would love to write down every second but, alas, there are only so many words in the dictionary. If I were to step back and give a review of the Vampire Pleasure Beach event from an unbiased perspective, I’d say it was a very well planned out event. A lot of effort was put into organising the evening and making it as open to all ages as possible while still frightening the thrill seekers that so desired. The Valhalla Projection Spooktacular was the first I’d seen of its kind. It was very unique and thoroughly entertaining.

The price for the evening was £18.00 including rides, or for an all day wristband including Vampire Pleasure Beach it was £23.00. This to me seemed like a bargain for a Halloween event on this scale. Granted, some may argue that hiring amateur scare actors may have been an unwise move, but there was some amazing talent in there too. It’s definitely worth a visit! If you’re ever considering Vampire Pleasure Beach 2014, I heavily recommend it; you may even see me there making a return as part of the undead!

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